The United States Government Manual provides the following organizational chart of U.S. Government. It's a good starting point for where you can start your research: Legislative, Executivie, or the Judicial Branch.
Another good place to start your research may be the website of the specific department or agency in which you are interested. The A - Z index of U.S. Government Departments and Agencies is a directory of U.S. federal government agencies, departments, corporations, instrumentalities, and government-sponsored enterprises. This index provides websites, email, phone numbers, addresses, and.much more.
Most government websites are structured similarly and will feature the following sections:
About Us: A government website's "About Us" section will include information on the agency's mission statement, organizational structure, statutory authority, annual reports, and sometimes information on their budget.
Statutes and Regulations: A typical government website structure often includes a dedicated section for accessing "statutes" (laws passed by Congress) and "regulations" (detailed rules implemented by that specific agency or department based on those statutes),
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA): This section will describe how to submit a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the agency's FOIA process, contact information for the agency's FOIA officer, and a link to the agency's FOIA reading room where proactively released documents can be found.
Electronic products are rapidly becoming a favored format for government publications. GovInfo and the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), both Web-based services, make a number of government publications available via computer.
Government documents which are integrated into the Library's collections, are organized by Library of Congress classification number. Use the online catalog, JULIUS, to locate these items.
JULIUS lists all types of federal depository materials (reports, books, codes, etc.) in all formats (paper, microform, internet). Microformat publications are primarily organized using the Superintendent of Documents classification system.
With the drop down above, search by title, author, call number, keyword, or ISBN/ISSN number. The Advanced Keyword search in JULIUS has more search options.
To search by author, it may help to put "United States" before the name of the government body, e.g., United States Tax Court. For a list of government agency, office, program and publication acronyms, see GovSpeak: A Guide to U.S. Government Acronyms & Abbreviations, by Kelly Smith, UC San Diego Libraries, and A-Z Index of U.S. Government Departments and Agencies, USA.gov.
To locate print material in the Law Library, note the call number and location in the Julius record. Click on the location for a map, or ask for directions at the Reference Desk or the Circulation Desk. The Derenberg Room of the Law Library is the location for a few of the major law-related government documents, e.g., the United States Code.
Worldcat and the Catalog of Government Publications (CGP) can be searched to identify other U.S. government publications that the Law Library might not have.
Use the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) to identify publications from the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the U.S. government. If you find a title of interest, click on the Locate in a Library link near the bottom of the record to identify a library that might have the publication in its U.S. depository collection. Make a note of the SuDoc number and Item number of the material. Check Julius for the Law Library call number and location, or ask for assistance at the Reference Desk.
The CGP is not comprehensive for pre-1976 government publications. These can be identified by using Worldcat and the earlier years of the CGP and related catalogs shelved in the Documents Assistant's office.